# How To... Build Cake?



## pipe30 (Dec 5, 2012)

What are the best ways to build cake in your pipe bowl? I have been smoking my pipe and have some built but didn't know if there were some better ways to help build it up. Also, how long should it take to have some good cake in there if smoking the pipe 2-3 times a week? What I have built already is pretty even... which I like.


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## pipe30 (Dec 5, 2012)

I should probably add that I saw a friend of mine's estate pipe he got with a good amount of cake and I was a little jealous of the cake in it. I don't want an estate pipe because I want to be able to build my own. I feel like if I can work on it and make the build up good it will give me some good experience and knowledge for caring for the pipe. I like working on things which makes me appreciate what I have a little more.


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## Tasiac (Nov 21, 2012)

On a new pipe I smoke the pipe with the bowl 1/4th full for a week, than half full for a week, and than full from there on out. Every time the bowl is finished I dump the ash and dottle out, put a pipe cleaner through the stem and shank ( but only after letting it cool down!). To finish it, I blow one or two short and strong puffs of air to get some ash and left over baccy' out. By doing this you will notice a nice cake start to build. 

The reason you let the pipe cool down is you risk breaking the.... the words not coming to mind but I'll call it the connector. (Where the stem inserts into the shank).

I'm assuming your smoking a briar, I case you're not there is no need to build cake on a corn cob, meerschaum, or clay pipe. The cake aids in smoking your briar but because it will expand as you smoke it could and one day will crack your meer, cob or clay. On that note I reccomend keeping the width of your cake the same as a dime or quarter, just like a cake in other non-briar pipes too much could crack the briar.. or so I've read.


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## El wedo del milagro (Jul 3, 2012)

The real answer: Just smoke yer pipe. Cake happens. Soon enough you will be asking how to slow down cake buildup.

The answer ya want: Don't use a pipe cleaner, or papertowel, on yer bowl after smoking. A bit of ash left on the sides speeds up cake accumulation.


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## gahdzila (Apr 29, 2010)

El wedo del milagro said:


> The real answer: Just smoke yer pipe. Cake happens. Soon enough you will be asking how to slow down cake buildup.
> 
> The answer ya want: Don't use a pipe cleaner, or papertowel, on yer bowl after smoking. A bit of ash left on the sides speeds up cake accumulation.


+1 to this. Just smoke it and don't worry about it. A few months from now, you'll be asking "how do I get rid of all this cake?!?" 

As an FYI - burleys seem to build cake faster than virginias or orientals. So if you have multiple pipes and smoke several different blends, you might consider smoking your burley blends out of the pipe that you want to build cake in. If you only have one pipe or don't smoke burleys, don't worry about it, the above still applies


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Interesting. I gently swab the ash out of the pipe. I think the reliance of ash in cake leads to a weaker cake. I also break in a new pipe with Virginias rather than Burleys; it takes a lot longer for the cake to build, but it seems to be less prone to crumbling or chipping when you ream. But whatever your technique, the take away here is that this is a very temporary concern: the cake will build and you can't stop it.


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## pipe30 (Dec 5, 2012)

I guess I have some smoking to do!


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## Blue_2 (Jan 25, 2011)

pipe30 said:


> I guess I have some smoking to do!


Have at it, and have fun while you're doing it! Cake happens.


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## AStateJB (Oct 13, 2011)

Blue_2 said:


> Cake happens.












:lol:


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## pipe30 (Dec 5, 2012)

wow... haha...


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## AStateJB (Oct 13, 2011)

pipe30 said:


> wow... haha...


Yeah... Poor Oom Paul! The owner should be ashamed!


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

AStateJB said:


> :lol:


That actually looks a lot like my dad's pipe - only with less cake. I texted my mom to see if she would send a pic - they're in Hawaii.


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## AStateJB (Oct 13, 2011)

Desertlifter said:


> That actually looks a lot like my dad's pipe - only with *less* cake. I texted my mom to see if she would send a pic - they're in Hawaii.


:shock: That's awful! What's your dad's address so I can bomb him a reamer? :lol:


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## Pipe Pastor (Nov 25, 2012)

AStateJB said:


> :lol:


That's crazy haha


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

AStateJB said:


> :shock: That's awful! What's your dad's address so I can bomb him a reamer? :lol:












He says that it saves tobacco since he gets a bowl from just a pinch of half-half.


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## AStateJB (Oct 13, 2011)

:jaw: HOLY CRAP!


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

AStateJB said:


> :jaw: HOLY CRAP!


He just texted me. Funny thing? HE JUST REAMED IT! I thought that it looked really open for his usual pipe use. Says that it keeps away tongue bite and avoids wasting tobacco.

Yah - my dad's weird.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

That is just amazing. I can't stop laughing!


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## AStateJB (Oct 13, 2011)

Sorry, Brian, I wasn't trying to derail your thread. Like Dan said, just enjoy your pipe. Cake will happen eventually.


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

AStateJB said:


> Sorry, Brian, I wasn't trying to derail your thread. Like Dan said, just enjoy your pipe. Cake will happen eventually.


That and one man's cake is another man's base coat - pipers seem to like varying levels of it. You'll find your groove in time. ipe:


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## pipe30 (Dec 5, 2012)

No worries, I am just glad to start a conversation and if someone posts a crazy picture to laugh about, I'm great with that too. Just enjoying the conversation.


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## pipe30 (Dec 5, 2012)

I had a friend tell me when I'm done smoking to put my thumb over the top of the bowl and shake the ash a little bit to cover the walls of the bowl with some of the ash. Is this recommended? I saw a post earlier about not depending on ash to create cake but if I did it every now and then (not too much) would it be ok?


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Plenty of people do that, Brian, and it does build up the cake faster. I'm the one who posted about not depending on ash, but I did that at first as well. I personally prefer not to, but that's just me.

The one thing you want to make sure to do is to smoke the tobacco as completely as possible, down to the bottom of the bowl. The cake on the bottom is where new smokers generally struggle, but it just requires smoking the bowl all the way down.


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## Pipe Pastor (Nov 25, 2012)

How cool do you allow the just smoked bowl to get before dumping the ash? Does this make a difference when building cake?


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## pipe30 (Dec 5, 2012)

MarkC said:


> Plenty of people do that, Brian, and it does build up the cake faster. I'm the one who posted about not depending on ash, but I did that at first as well. I personally prefer not to, but that's just me.
> 
> The one thing you want to make sure to do is to smoke the tobacco as completely as possible, down to the bottom of the bowl. The cake on the bottom is where new smokers generally struggle, but it just requires smoking the bowl all the way down.


Thanks Mark for the good input. I have noticed new pipes tend to struggle more towards the bottom of the bowl.


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Pipe Pastor said:


> How cool do you allow the just smoked bowl to get before dumping the ash? Does this make a difference when building cake?


I dump it right away, but then I don't really want the ash in the cake. (Keep in mind that I'm in the minority position here!) Leaving the ash in would allow the residue to dry with the ash still clinging, building cake faster.

Off topic: Residue seems like an odd word. If this was a different kind of pipe forum, I'd say resin; what's the term for tobacco?


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## nikonnut (Dec 4, 2011)

MarkC said:


> I dump it right away, but then I don't really want the ash in the cake. (Keep in mind that I'm in the minority position here!) Leaving the ash in would allow the residue to dry with the ash still clinging, building cake faster.
> 
> Off topic: Residue seems like an odd word. If this was a different kind of pipe forum, I'd say resin; what's the term for tobacco?


Tar? :rofl:


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## steinr1 (Oct 22, 2010)

Desertlifter said:


> He says that it saves tobacco since he gets a bowl from just a pinch of half-half.


I've seen stacks of estate pipes with masses of cake in them. I'm sure the original owners were spinning in their graves when I reamed it away. Odd thing is that all advice seems to be against this (Trim it to the thickness of a dime or it'll crack the pipe - which may have happened here, but that's obviously not a problem). 30 years ago this is the effect we strove for. Big cake and a tiny bowl for just a pinch or two of tobacco. I never got this far but it was "respectable" (Burley based Edgeworth Sliced helped) and I nearly killed a mate of mine when he "helped out" by cleaning my pipe for me. One of the owd duffers we drank with (a senior computing lecturer) had a Falcon that was so bunged up that he had to refill after a single "hit" on it. Light, inhale, tap out (actually - unscrew and poke out with a matchstick; it was that small) and repeat all night long. Kudos to your old man.


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